Former Countess of Chester NHS Trust chief executive awarded £1.4m over unfair dismissal

A former NHS chief executive has been awarded £1.4m in damages after suing the health service for unfair dismissal.

Dr Susan Gilby took the Countess of Chester NHS Trust to court after being suspended in December 2022.

The final cost to the taxpayer – including court costs – could be around £3m after the trust refused offers to avoid the case going to court.

Gilby told the BBC she was relieved the case was over and that this “was never about the money.”

The Countess of Chester NHS Trust confirmed a settlement had been agreed.

Gilby, 62, said one of the trust’s directors, Ros Fallon, took her to a pub on a Friday afternoon in October 2022 and told her it was “time for you to go”.

“She said: ‘And if you don’t agree to go, we will start a process against you’. She was unable to tell me what that process would be.”

Gilby said she was initially offered a pay-off – the equivalent of 16 months of her salary – while she did “a non-job” with NHS England.

But she said the offer had a sting in the tail.

“I had to drop my concerns, drop my grievance, about the behaviours of Ian Haythornthwaite, and for me, that was an absolute red line.

“The idea that I would walk away and this would never be mentioned again, was absolutely unpalatable to me.

“I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself knowing that I had taken effectively a bribe.”

Gilby had been appointed chief executive in September 2018 just weeks after Lucy Letby, who worked at the trust, had been arrested.

She was praised for guiding the trust through the pandemic, but in 2021, Haythornthwaite was appointed chairman and Gilby says her job became increasingly difficult.

Following her refusal to accept the trust’s offer to walk away quietly, in December 2022, she was suspended.

Gilby promptly resigned and launched legal action.

The tribunal found she had never been presented with the reasons for her suspension and that the trust had instead “built up a sham case” against her.

As well as the damages, the trust is likely to have to pay a substantial portion of her legal fees, on top of the costs of their own lawyers and barristers.

The total cost to the NHS, to taxpayers, is estimated therefore to be around £3m.

Letters seen by the BBC show that Gilby’s legal team tried to avert a court hearing, which would have saved a substantial amount of money.

“We were just met with an absolute wall in terms of any willingness to have a conversation about bringing this to a close,” says Gilby.

“It was effectively chequebook litigation, and the perpetrators were able to do this because it wasn’t their own chequebook, it wasn’t a business in which they had a financial interest.

“It’s quite sickening to think that people with those values are able to get positions in senior positions in public bodies,” she added.

Haythornthwaite resigned on the day the employment tribunal published its judgement.

Two other members of Project Countess, directors Fallon and Nicola Price, had left the trust by then and are no longer working in public life.

A fourth member of the Project, Ken Gill, has also left the trust.

He now has a role as a non-executive director of the Legal Aid Agency, a Ministry of Justice quango, for which he is paid between £10,000-£15,000, according to their annual report.

The Agency told the BBC that despite the criticisms made of him by the employment tribunal, “we have concluded Mr Gill is fit to continue his role”.

The British Medical Association, which supported Gilby throughout, including with legal fees, said the award was testament to her “determination and bravery” but said the law needed to change.

“It remains clear that the protections afforded to doctors raising concerns are woefully inadequate and legislation in this area is still not fit for purpose,” the BMA said in a statement.

“We need to see radical change in how whistleblowers are protected and treated in the NHS.”

Gilby, who had previously been a medic, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, hoped she had several years to go working for the health service before she was forced out. Despite the employment tribunal finding comprehensively in her favour, she fears her career in the health service is now over.

“It’s had a devastating impact, if I’m honest,” she says. “I’ve felt extremely isolated, and definitely feel that I am regarded as a pariah in the NHS. I think there is an unwritten rule that you do not take the NHS to court. You don’t stand up and be counted. You take the bribe, you keep quiet and you move on.”

Her hope now is that other people subjected to bullying and harassment will see the outcome of her case and have the courage to come forward and that “other organisations who are thinking of treating their employees in the way in which I was treated think twice.”

In a brief statement, the Countess of Chester NHS Trust “the Trust can confirm that the employment tribunal has been resolved through a mutually agreed settlement.”